Although applicable to any air- or spacecrafts, the present invention and the problem on which it is based will be described hereinafter in greater detail with reference to an aircraft.
It is known to equip aircrafts with at least one generator which is accommodated in an engine nacelle of the aircraft. The generator is driven by a turbine of the engine arranged in the engine nacelle in order to generate electric current. In order to provide consumers in the fuselage of the aircraft with electric current, the current from the engine nacelle must be guided into the fuselage of the aircraft through a wing.
Owing to the fact that, nowadays, the different aircraft components are manufactured at different locations and are then assembled together, predefined connection points between the different components are provided.
This results in the problem that the generator cannot be connected to the consumers inside the fuselage of the aircraft via a single continuous cable. Instead, it is necessary to provide a plurality of cables which are provided in the region of the connection points and can be interconnected.
In order to connect the electric cables it is normal to use a distributor 1, as illustrated perspectively in FIG. 1.
The distributor 1 basically comprises a flat plate 2 on which a plurality of pins 3 are arranged. The pins 3 extend substantially mutually parallel and are separated from one another by means of a separator element 4 in order to avoid, in particular, any spark-over. As is shown in FIG. 1 merely for one pin 3 by way of example, each of the pins 3 connects a first cable 5 to a second cable 6. For this purpose, the cables 5, 6 comprise cable lugs (not shown in FIG. 1) at their respective ends. The two cable lugs are slid over the pins 3 and are pressed against one another by means of a nut 7, in such a way that the first cable 5 is connected to the second cable 6 in an electrically conductive manner.
In the case of the known solution described above, one drawback proved to be that it was relatively complex in terms of assembly to slide the cable lugs over the pins 3 and to subsequently position and tighten the nuts 7. In addition, the construction of the distributor 1 predetermines the course of the cable 5. This can hinder, in part, the versatile guidance of the cable through the aircraft. Furthermore, the distributor 1 is relatively large and heavy.
One aspect of the present invention is therefore to provide a solution which at least mitigates the above-described drawbacks.